


The Future Is Coming

by HarpiaHarpyja



Series: A Song of Trash and Fire [14]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Apartment hunting, Ben Is a Good Lounge Partner, Ben Needs a Haircut, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Marriage Talks, Moving In Together, Rey Just Keeps Graphing Paper Around NBD, Rey Needs a Bigger Bed, Romantic Fluff, relationship discussion, reylo freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-25
Updated: 2018-09-25
Packaged: 2019-07-17 07:31:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16090934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HarpiaHarpyja/pseuds/HarpiaHarpyja
Summary: An ordinary night lounging at Rey's place leads to some unexpectedly serious discussions as she and Ben think about logistics and their future together.(A companion interim ficlet for 'A Song of Trash and Fire: Ben and Rey Make a Porno', taking place in July 2019, between Chapters 14 and 15.)





	The Future Is Coming

Ben knew Rey had a small bed, but he’d never been so keenly aware of that fact until he’d started spending the night there on a semi-regular basis. It was only a few times a week, sometimes less often when they were both particularly busy or their schedules didn’t line up. But they made time to see each other on the weekends as an unofficial rule. And this week had been a bit of a special case with the holiday on Thursday—and that party at his parents’ place. 

He’d been half expecting it to be a pain in the ass, and at first it had been. But after a while it had all turned out more or less okay. Yes, he’d admit it: it had even been fun, once the fireworks had started over the city. Afterward, Rey had stayed over with him in his old room there. In theory, it had been sort of weird, but not weird enough that he hadn’t taken her up on an offer she made to him on their drive there that afternoon. If he made an effort to have a good time at the party, he got . . . a favor that guaranteed he would have good time after hours. _That_ had been worth it. 

Still, he preferred being here at her place. Even if Rose was usually around, and sometimes Finn with her, it was the more private of the options and didn’t make him feel like a teenager trying to sneak a girl into his room. Tonight, though, Rose _wasn’t_ around. So after he and Rey had gotten in from spending a few hours wandering around South Street, they’d been able to enjoy the benefits of truly having the place to themselves for the first time in over a week without having to worry about making too much noise. 

But now they’d finished and showered, and the evening found them both feeling the drain of the day as they lounged in her bedroom. Sex always made Ben feel lazy afterward, plus it was late, so his lack of energy wasn’t surprising to him. As for his brain, though . . . it would not _shut up_. He was trying to mitigate that problem in a way that didn’t necessitate him getting out of bed. For the time being, that meant stretching out on his stomach and attempting to read something engrossing enough to demand his full attention.

Rey had started similarly, reviewing some sort of technical manual, but for the last ten minutes or so she’d changed tacks—now she was straddling his back, butt planted on his, leaning forward and messing with his hair. He could tell that she was braiding it, then shaking out whatever work she’d done and starting over. He could also tell that she thought he didn’t know what she was doing, which was kind of amusing to him. So he let her go on digging her elbows into his shoulder blades because he liked having her so close, just like he let her go on thinking he was ignorant of how she was choosing to entertain herself. Like a lot of the perfectly mundane things she did, it was cute.

He continued to lie there, staring at his book, fully aware that he’d hadn’t actually taken in a single line of text since she had turned her interest to him. He was letting his eyelids drift shut when Rey’s fingers ceased their movement near the crown of his head.

“Is Shirley Jackson that boring?” she asked, amused as she plucked at the collar of his T-shirt. She smoothed the fabric over his back, like she’d just realized her elbows must have been causing him some discomfort and wanted to make up for it.

He moved, but barely. He understood her question—he just couldn’t come up with a clever answer. So he opted instead to fail as magnificently as possible. “Hnh?”

“You’ve been on that page forever.”

“Oh. I was distracted.” He considered rolling over but didn’t want to tip her off him, so he gave up that idea rather quickly and turned the question on her. “What are you doing to my hair?”

“Playing.”

“Hm. I noticed that.”

“It’s getting long! Braid long.” She squeezed his waist between her knees and grabbed a hank of his hair as if her point required demonstration.

“If this is your way of telling me to cut it, message received.” He laughed a little and closed his book. “And it’s putting me to sleep, whatever you’re doing.”

Rey shrugged, gave up on the braid she was working on, and scratched her nails gently over his scalp instead. _That_ just gave him goose bumps and reminded him that he was really in peril of nodding off. 

“So go to sleep. It’s late.”

She was right, and it wasn’t a bad suggestion. He had something he needed to talk to her about, though, and he didn’t want to put it off much longer. They’d probably have another chance soon, but one thing he’d learned from his relationship with her—the entire breadth of it, from their strained days in high school to their current situation—was not to waste time. They were here together right now, he had what he needed, so he should at least bring it up.

“Actually—lemme up.” He reached back and nudged her thigh, and she crawled off of him and settled near her pillows. Ben shifted onto his back, decided it didn’t really give the right vibe for a Serious Discussion, then sat up to lean against the wall. “I want to talk to you about something. Are you awake enough?”

“Yeah. Okay. Are _you_?” Her eyes were darting over his face as she tried to gauge how serious this conversation was going to be, but the corner of her mouth was twitching.

“For now,” he admitted. “It’ll probably help if you can keep your hands off me for more than five minutes.”

She prodded him with her foot and rolled her eyes, grinning. “I’ll manage. So, what is it?”

Ben took a deep breath and nodded, bracing himself. It really wasn’t a controversial topic he was about to bring up, but he realized there was a chance—slight, but present—that he would be disappointed by her response. It felt like it required preparation. 

“My parents will be ready to move out in a little over a month. They’re already getting rid of furniture and packing and all that. You saw the place the other day.” He paused and checked Rey’s reaction so far. She nodded, and smiled, so he continued. “So I’ve been starting to look at places to live when they do.”

“Right, of course. Where’ve you been looking?”

“That’s the thing. I know you said you wanted to be out of here by the time you start classes in September. So, before I start looking seriously, I want to know if living together again is something you would consider at this point.”

Her expression didn’t change, which was initially alarming. Rey just continued to watch him with a look of mild interest, and then her head moved in the slightest nod, like she was digesting what he’d said. “Yes. I would. I was going to ask you the same, believe it or not.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. You beat me to it. Try not to lord it over me.”

Ben laughed. “I’ll resist the temptation this once.” 

The hardest part was already past, then—she thought it was a good idea. Of course, that meant there was now a whole new slew of questions to address, only a few of which they could realistically begin tackling tonight. But her positive response buoyed him enough that he felt he might be getting a second surge of energy. Enough to hash at least some of it out.

“Do you have a notepad or something?” he asked, scanning her nightstand and the shelves across the room. He was suddenly very keen to act. “If you want, we can start . . . I dunno. Getting our ideas down.”

“You don’t have one, Mister Writer?” But she had already gotten to her feet and was grabbing a pen and yellow legal pad from her shelf. 

As she handed it over, Ben tried to excuse his lack of preparation. “I do, but I think I left it in the kitchen. And whatever you did to my hair made my legs stop functioning. I’m stuck here for at least an hour.”

“What a shame.” Rey sat back down and assumed a posture that suggested she was ready to get some work done, then leaned forward to tap the empty page in front of him. “Don't worry, we’ll put the time to good use.”

In almost any other situation, Ben was sure that would have been an innuendo. But tonight, for once, the fact that they were sitting in bed together and looking for a way to fill an hour only meant that they were apparently starting the process of apartment hunting.

Some time in the last month or so, something had shifted in their relationship. It was subtle—perhaps just that the initial oddness had finally worn off. Deciding to call this what it was in April had been a good decision, and for the most part it had been natural and easy. But there had still been a period during which it was strange to think of how they’d been at the same time last year, or even mere months before. They’d both felt it, and talked about it, and chalked it up to how suddenly they’d switched gears, that they’d so quickly and completely acknowledged that what they were to each other had changed. Little boundaries were breaking down as they both realized such things weren’t necessary anymore. In a lot of ways nothing had changed between them, and the things that had were exciting, and sometimes intimidating. By now even those felt normal.

So what they were doing tonight, what they were deciding . . . it felt obvious. It felt like a practical approach. They’d done this before, years ago, when they were far less equipped. And now they were together, and it was serious, so it made just as much sense—more. 

“I guess,” Rey began, “that one of the more important factors I’d been thinking of was trying to be close to school. I’ll probably be spending most of my time going there from here and then right to work, so . . . I don’t know. Triangulating that might help. You know? Give us a general area?”

Ben nodded and wrote that down while she tapped something into her phone. He had his jobs and his plans and his writing, but the fact was, Rey had a lot more on her plate, or would soon. Besides, it was Philly. Nearly everything both of them needed was easy enough to reach via SEPTA, as much as they both liked to complain about it. She could take the car; he didn’t mind. And that was how they started, and proceeded to spend the next half hour or so. Rey looked things up, Ben wrote things down, Rey made fun of Ben for bothering with pen and paper at all when nearly everything had an app or a website, Ben insisted she’d appreciate having a hard copy later. It was all such dry stuff—budgets, locations, dimensions—but it was fun together. 

“So, bedroom? Bed _rooms_?” Rey said, the lilt in her voice suggestive of something undetermined. “Are we . . . sharing that?”

“Oh. Hm.” It honestly wasn’t even something he’d thought about. They shared a bed often enough now that the idea of doing so with her on a permanent basis didn’t seem like a change. But he realized he also wasn’t taking it for granted when it came to having their own place. “I don’t know. What do you think? Obviously I wouldn’t mind it at all, but I could see it maybe being good to have two.”

“Yeah, I was thinking that,” she admitted. “Just in terms of _room_. We have our own stuff, and the old place was cramped to begin with. And I know you like your space.”

“You do too,” he reminded her. 

“Yes I do.” She sat up a little straighter and winked at him. “So, are we thinking two then? It can’t hurt to have an extra room anyway. For all your tights and tabards.”

Ben snorted. “Still don’t have either of those. And I wouldn’t need a room for it if I did. Anyway.” He nodded. “Two bedrooms.”

He had thought that the toughest question he’d be asking tonight was that of the matter of living together. But as they hashed out the bedroom issue, suddenly his unlikely conversation with Han a couple days before was rushing back—ideas of what came next; the fact that Ben wanted to _marry_ Rey, one day, maybe soon; the knowledge that he’d already been taking steps toward that; the future, _his_ future, which he very desperately wanted to include her. This was a small step toward that: sharing an apartment with her, and by extension sharing her life again in a very immediate way.

He thought they were being prudent, maintaining their own spaces, at least to begin with. They’d still be in the same apartment. They’d still wind up together most nights anyway. He knew, too, that personal space was a luxury Rey had lacked for much of her life, and he wanted her to enjoy it when she could. He had no such excuse, but he felt similarly. It made sense. But would it always be that way? If . . .

Ben chewed the end of the pen a little, put it down, and looked up at Rey. She had already sensed the shift in his mood. They were still talking about important things, they were still enjoying the excitement of planning something new to share, but what he was about to say was a bit beyond that.

“Don’t think I’m trying to push anything,” he began, already aware that was not the ideal opening. He just didn’t want to scare her if her mind wasn’t in the same place. It wouldn’t change anything for him, but he wanted her to be at ease. “But if we do this— _when_ we do this—is . . .” 

His mouth opened with the next words sitting there on the tip of his tongue, and part of him truly could not believe he was about to say this to her. But he had to; she was already watching him, wondering. “Is us getting married something you could see in our future?”

She continued to just _look_ at him, which he had no idea what to do with, so he added, “As a hypothetical possibility. I don’t mean now, or even soon. Just, can you see it happening?” She turned her head a little, but was still silent. He fought the urge to panic. “You think it's too soon to talk about.” 

It was a neutral observation, not a question. He knew this could be how she took it. It was fine.

Rey finally responded, though at first it was just a mute shake of her head. A moment later she said, “No. Not too soon. Actually I think it makes perfect sense.”

He felt like a weight had been lifted off him, which seemed inappropriate since this _wasn’t_ weighing on him. Maybe it was just hearing, in her own words, that she was open to the idea. It meant he wasn’t just letting himself be carried off by romantic, idealized notions with no basis in reality. 

“Okay,” he said, surprised by how even his own voice sounded. He allowed himself a small smile. “That’s . . . good to know. We should sort of account for it, if we do this, don’t you think? After everything that’s happened this year, I want to be upfront.”

“I know. So do I.” She drew her shoulders up sharply, then relaxed. “Here’s how I see it: We’ve known each other forever. The dating part’s new, but we know we can live together, we know . . . each other’s habits. We have a routine. We’ve been getting our finances back in order.” Her face had softened, now that she knew why he’d taken such a suddenly serious turn, and she folded her legs in front of her so she could prop her elbows on her knees. “We _work_.”

“Yeah. We do.” He loved that about her, how good she was at distilling things to their most crucial parts, focusing on what mattered, on what made a difference.

Her eyes still hadn’t left his face. “And this is good so far. Really good. Right?”

“Right. Exactly.” 

“So, yeah, why not? Of course I could see it. Easily.”

“Great.” God, the degree to which hearing her say that thrilled him was almost embarrassing. And maybe what he was about to say next was taking it a bit far, but in light of what she’d just told him, he didn’t think it would be. “Because . . . you should know, when it comes down to it, where I am right now—you’re it for me. I don’t have any doubt of it.” 

He made the mistake of looking at her as he said that, and saw the way she blinked rapidly a few times, the way she might if she were trying to get rid of some tears. But she wasn’t. Instead, whatever had flashed across her face in that split second was complicated and intense, and Ben wasn’t sure what to make of it beyond some gut sense that it was good. 

A sudden sweet smile warmed her features. “I feel that way too.”

They stared at each other for a few seconds, until Ben was the first to remember they had been midconverstion before the detour that had led them to that point. And also how tired he suddenly was, despite the fact that the flurry of excitement that had stolen his breath a minute or so before had yet to fully die down. “This good for a start, then?”

“Huh?” Rey blinked and nodded rapidly. “Oh yeah. I think we got a lot done. Enough to narrow the search down a lot. If you have some time tomorrow we can pin some listings and maybe send out a few inquiries?”

“Yeah, I’ll be done work by dinner time, hopefully. If you want to come to my parents’ around six, they’d probably be ecstatic to have you over again for dinner so soon.” He flipped the legal pad over, clipped the pen to the side, and flopped over onto his back to give her a sidelong look. “Want me to stay tonight?”

“You have to ask?”

He leaned over her to slip the pad onto her nightstand, stole a kiss, then tried to eke out a space for himself between the wall and her. “You need a bigger bed.”

“Believe me, I know.” Rey scooted under the blankets and drew nearer until she was pressed up close to him—partly because she wanted to be, but also because the width of her mattress somewhat necessitated mandatory cuddling when he spent the night. “It’ll be the top of my list for new furniture when we find a place.”


End file.
